Stars
by DixietheDogg
Summary: The stars were beautiful. He remembered every time that a soul was born, a star would appear in the sky. Every time a soul was lost, however, a star would fall, racing across the sky with the others. Melinda had told him that.
1. Origin

It starred at a girl and a man, looking at him. It didn't know who they were. Or why it was here. Or who IT even was. The man took a step toward it and handed it a bow and arrows. How did it know what a bow and arrows were?

"Okay, Melinda. Try and use your magic to stop the scarecrow." It realized two things. It was the scarecrow, and Melinda was the girl. "En Garde!" The girl hopped back and forward, laughing at herself. Scarecrow strung an arrow and watched as it fell to the ground.

Suddenly, Melinda's face lit up. "I know what your name is. Friend! 'Cause friends don't hurt friends, right Pa?" The girl looked at the man, Pa, and Friend felt something inside of him. It warmed him from the inside. A soft warmth. Friend didn't know what had happened, but he suddenly had a name for the feeling inside. _Anima _

Melinda laughed and clapped her hands, and a broomstick leapt up and started to dance. Friend clapped too, and another broom started to dance with the first. Pa suddenly took Melinda behind him.

—

Friend looked at Skout, his companion. They were riding out into the desert. Not for the first time, he noticed the similarities between Skout and Melinda. They looked roughly the same, and the mannerisms were strikingly similar. Friend flicked his reins. He knew, as a Protector, he would not let anything happen to her. Not again.

Skout kept up the journey by talking and then pretending to talk as him. Part of him liked it, but another part didn't. Wasn't he an individual? Technically, he was an object, but ever since feeling _Anima _so long ago, he saw the world differently. He wasn't sure how, exactly, but the world had a quality to it. It was… under the normal world. Buried there right under consciousness.

—

After dark Skout curled up under a blanket to sleep, but Friend stayed up. The stars were beautiful. He remembered every time that a soul was born, a star would appear in the sky. Every time a soul was lost, however, a star would fall, racing across the sky with the others. Melinda had told him that.

Friend had never really understood the concept of soul. He had tried to ask Melinda many times, but she never got him. It was frustrating not being able to talk.


	2. Viola

Friend and Skout were passing through a town. They were running low on water so Skout went into the general store to purchase some. While she was gone, Friend jumped down from his horse and led both to a fence post. An old woman approached him. She looked him over once and put her mouth to his ear, or the place where his ear would've been if he had any.

"Friend." Friend turned to the woman to try and sign how she knew his name, but she had disappeared. The street was completely empty. He heard Skout come through the door. She sat on top of her horse, Spirit, and beckoned to friend to follow on his horse. They rode off once again on their journey.

—

"Hey, Friend," Skout asked, "I got ya somethin that I thought ya might like back in town. Its called a viola, a version o tha fiddle they have 'cross tha Iron Border. I got it real cheap 'cause nobody wanted ta buy it."

Skout slowed down her horse and took out an instrument out of her pack. It glistened with _something_. The viola had an aura about it that suggested something more. Friend held the instrument, and twigs with leaves seemed to grow out and unfurl from the neck. Friend almost dropped the viola in fright, but something told him to hang on. He turned it over and on the Side of the C bout there were some symbols inscribed. It wasn't in any language that Friend knew.

Friend noted to himself that Skout didn't even seem to register the change in the instrument, almost as if she couldn't see the difference. Her expression seemed to ask him to play, so Friend lifted the instrument to his shoulder and begun to play.

—

Friend looked up at the stars once again. Skout had fallen asleep once again, leaving him to his thoughts. People say that "Music is an outburst of the soul", right? Could you play without one well enough to convince others that you did? Or was it a requirement for the simplest of melodies? When he had played that song earlier, Friend had felt _Anima_ once more. A pulse in the sole of your boot to the tip of your glove. The feeling seemed… connected somehow.

Friend drifted into sleep as a glimmer of light pulsed in his chest, then went back down again.


End file.
